


Winged

by Barkour



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Episode Tag, Gap Filler, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-13
Updated: 2013-03-13
Packaged: 2017-12-05 04:25:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,017
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/718863
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Barkour/pseuds/Barkour
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Reach Ambassador and Jaime have a disagreement.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Winged

**Author's Note:**

> This is set after "Runaways."

The Infiltrator’s host was displeased in the aftermath of the S.T.A.R Labs breach. This was not unexpected. Mammalian host species often had difficulties, “growing pains” as the human G. Gordon Godfrey had once said of the work of adjusting to some new and better thing.

“Those people could have been hurt! There had to have been another way to stop that Red Volcano guy—”

“This best suits our needs,” said the Negotiator—Ambassador, as the humans preferred it. “Theatrical displays will do more to sway affections than covert heroism. Your G. Gordon Godfrey is proof of this.”

He directed the Infiltrator to return to the host’s dwelling. So many _relationships_ to maintain! Truly, it astonished that a species so devoid of social order, so dependent upon family groups, could have ever reached space.

“And that makes it okay?” The host agitated. “Look—I don’t know what your deal is—but you—I—those people back there, I almost killed them.”

“Ease your conscience,” suggested the Ambassador. “Remind yourself that you are no longer in control.”

“’Cause you care so much about my conscience. Just like you care so much about helping people with your bogus Reach juice.”

“I’m only trying to be civil,” said the Ambassador mildly.

He watched as the Infiltrator flew, splitting through a cloud. Ah! To be a larva again, with wings of his own. But such days were gone. He left sentimentality behind.

“The loss of a few lives would be inconsequential. I must commend you,” he went on over the host’s protests. “For mammals, you’re certainly prodigious.”

“No loss of any life is, is inconsequential. Those people, they have families and lives,” and now the host’s target shifted, driven onward by such rampages of emotion, “like Tye did, and what did you do to Tye?” The host struggled. “What did you do to any of them?”

“I?” The Ambassador looked out across Metropolis, that inefficient human hive. They scrabbled in the streets and left their warrens empty at night, so vulnerable to attack. “I did nothing. But I will be sure to let Science Director Zet Si-Si know you admire her work. She’ll be pleased to know it.”

In truth, Zet Si-Si would hunt for some offense. She did take her work so very seriously, and the admiration of a base thing such as this host would be to insult her. Yes—he would be sure to mention it to her.

“Why are you doing this? Why are you here—what do you even want?”

“Oh, we’re here to help,” said the Ambassador. “In the interests of galactic peace—”

“Bullshit.”

The Ambassador sighed and stretched out his fingers. The Infiltrator would arrive at the host’s house shortly. If he could leave the task to the Infiltrator—but the damage done to it had been profound. Its parameters had altered; it functioned with errors. Ideally the Infiltrator would be taken off-line and scrapped, but the errors had been noticed too late.

“Surely even your primitive world understands business. Expansion requires resources. Research requires resources. And resources are unfortunately finite.”

The host turned dully heroic again. “Is that what you see us as, as—what—like the Earth’s some big strip mine? Like we’re lab rats for you guys to screw around with? Is that what you grabbed Tye for? That’s what you’re going to do to Earth. That’s what Bart was—”

The Ambassador cut him off. The host’s thoughts would drone on.

“It’s only business.”

“You know,” said the host, “funny thing is, I don’t believe that when LexCorp says it either, or when the politicians say it. It’s never just business. You’re just saying you don’t care who you hurt so long as you get what you want.”

“However you see it,” said the Ambassador. “Either way, you have very little choice.”

“I won’t let you,” said the host, but even the little mammal must have known how empty that threat.

“And yet,” said the Ambassador. “You still have no say in it.”

The Infiltrator lighted on the window sill outside the host’s bedroom, and the Ambassador stretched his fingers again. It was heady, to be so in control of the beetle. He had nearly forgotten what it was to fly. To look down upon the scrambling things below and know himself so far above them…

His arms pricked with a sudden, exhilarating rush of pheromones: Zet Si-Si had stepped on to the bridge. He did not turn to acknowledge her, nor did he speak. He had wondered how long it would take for news to reach her lab.

“You allowed my subjects to escape.”

Her carapace whispered, long sheaths rubbing against each other.

“A regrettable loss,” he said. He took care to switch off the microphone that fed his voice through the Infiltrator before he spoke further. “But it was one our operation will survive. There will be more subjects.”

“That will take time.” She stopped short of him. “These subjects have already responded to the manipulation. They are the ones I must study.”

“Be at ease,” he said, amused. “There is no cause for concern.”

“Is there not?”

He looked over to her. The Science Director stared sharply at him across some little distance.

“The Infiltrator is under my absolute control,” said the Ambassador, gesturing to the display screen. “The host mewls but he is powerless. You will have all the subjects you desire soon. What possibly reason could you have to worry?”

Her gaze narrowed. She turned, slightly, away from the windows and away from the Ambassador, her shoulders even. The remnants of her wings showed, fused in a delicate sheath down her back.

“It is not because of the Infiltrator that I worry,” said the Science Director.

“Then you do not worry,” said the Ambassador softly.

She inclined her head and then she left. Her skirt rasped. The sting of her presence faded in increments till the Ambassador was once more alone with the Infiltrator’s controls and that wretched human thing.

“Be silent,” he snapped; but he had forgotten to turn the microphone on again.


End file.
